Why Cash Prizes Work for High School Fundraisers

Why cash incentives are your best option for high school students.

Offering tangible prizes seems to be most effective with elementary school students. However, as students get older, they become less effective motivators. The reason is that older students expect more because they know that what they've received in the past is no longer sufficient. They've become more informed and selective. Therefore, if they're going to sell for prizes, they want them to be better quality and usually name brand.

Unfortunately, this isn't feasible because catalog companies can't afford to provide these higher-end prizes and still make a profit. They can't offer more expensive prizes based on the money brought in at each prize level. In other words, there's not enough money to go around. Since it has to be a 'win-win' for everyone involved, other more creative ways to incentivize these more challenging students must be found. Here are three reasons cash prize programs work exceptionally well for high school fundraisers:

1. Students Choose how to Spend the Money

With a traditional prize program, students are limited to what's offered on the flyer. They may or may not see what they want. Yet, if they know they can win cash for selling out their brochure, they may be more apt to sell. Why? Because they can control how to spend the money that they earn. And the more items they can sell, the faster the money grows.

2. Sponsors can apply Prize Money to the Profit

On the other hand, sponsors can choose to put the extra prize money towards each student's fundraising goal. Many groups keep individual accounts for each student. Since the company provides the cash, it can be applied to each student's account. The cash amount earned is in addition to the profit made from selling. Each organization receives a report informing them of how much each student sold.

3. No Prizes to Deal With

Because there are no prizes, sponsors have one less thing to worry about. There are no prizes to have to take into account. Prizes can occasionally arrive damaged or broken or not arrive at all.

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Author Bio

Clay Boggess has been designing fundraising programs for schools and various nonprofit organizations throughout the US since 1999. He’s helped administrators, teachers, and outside support entities such as PTAs and PTOs raise millions of dollars. Clay is an owner and partner at Big Fundraising Ideas.